Courage and Cunning
by GGrant
Summary: BB/MM femmeslash: Bellatrix Black joins Gryffindor in an attempt to woo a certain pureblooded professor.


**Legal Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these characters.

**Summary: **Bellatrix Black joins Gryffindor in an attempt to woo a certain pureblooded professor.

**A/N: **I'm planning to make this story REALLY long; it should last all Bella's seven years at Hogwarts with a lot of time skipped in the early years and then it will include a few years after. This will be heavily AU including Voldemort never existing and Minerva being a pureblood. I also changed the ages of all the Black children to suit my needs, so deal with it.

**A/N2:** This is just a short Prologue and I probably will not be updating this story until I've finished my other one, but I had to get this out here because my philosophy class gives me way too much free time to imagine stories.

**Courage and Cunning**

Prologue

It was the annual Black family Christmas party, three months after Bellatrix Black's 11th birthday, and she was finally allowed to attend along with her two cousins, Regulus and Sirius. This year, it was being held at her cousin's house, so her younger sisters had to stay behind at their own home. Still had six months to go until her birthday so she was required by her parents to stay and watch her little sister, Narcissa, until they arrived back home.

When Bellatrix and her parents arrived at 12 Grimmuald place, it was 6PM and it was the only house on the block with all its lights still on. It was normal for the houses in this are to start to turn in early the deeper they get into the winter. As soon as Bella had stepped through the doorway, she was attacked by two cousins hugging her. Their mother, Walburga, shooed them away and took Bella's coat along with her parents' coats. The boys pulled Bella away from the adults so they could go catch up in the other corner of the room. "Don't you go getting into any trouble, Bellatrix!" her mother, Druella, called from across the room.

Bella rolled her eyes with her back still to her mother as the three children walked across the empty room. "As if that'll happen at one of these horrid parties," Bella muttered under her breath so only her cousins could hear. They both smirked to themselves at the comment, all three of them knowing they were in for a boring night of purebloods bragging about nonsense, but they wanted to see it at least once, and would be expected to attend every year they could now.

They sat in the chairs in the corner by the lit fireplace and started talking about how ridiculous they boys' parents had been about making everything perfect for tonight. They'd physically and verbally abused the house elves so bad every time one of these kinds of events came up that the elves now automatically hid in a corner when a human walked by starting a few days before the event. Regulus knew to stay out of his parents' way like the house elves, but his brother, Sirius, was always unnecessarily confrontational and would get in the way of Kreacher, one of the more racist house elves, every chance he got. In response, he ended up on the bad end of corporal punishment many a time this last week. After thoroughly discussing how foolish Sirius was, they moved onto the topic on their attendance of Hogwarts which was coming up in half a year.

"Mother told us about this horrid fellow named Slughorn that would try to get us to join his club just so he can be associated with the Black family. She said it would help our careers, but I took it more as a warning to stay the hell away from him," Bella started.

Regulus responded, "Why won't you or Sirius ever do as your parents say?"

"Don't lump me in with her! She complies with almost everything her parents tell her to do; she just does whatever she can against their wishes that she can get away without being caught doing," Sirius defended himself.

"Yes, and I save myself many lashings as well."

After Regulus agreed with Bella, she tuned out the rest of their conversation and just watched the people slowly arrive. She noted the usual family members attending and a few well known politicians within the ministry and some of the heads of the other pureblood families.

Bella was about to note the next person through the entrance-way when she was interrupted by her cousins, "OW!" She turned to see Regulus rubbing the back of his head while glaring daggers at Sirius. She smirked to herself and turned back to the gathering. The door was shut and she had apparently missed the next person through the door so she quickly scanned the room trying to place who it was. Bella saw a pitch black bun of hair sticking up above the crowd that wasn't there before and followed it with her eyes as it passed through the crowd and into the kitchen where her mother currently was berating the house elves. Bellatrix rolled her eyes at the thought and decided to wait patiently watching the door to the kitchen for the newest arrival to reemerge.

About fifteen minutes had passed and Bella was getting impatient. Bella was about to storm into the kitchen to find out who this person was that dared to infuriate her so. Just as she planted her palms on the arms of the chair to lift herself, a woman who looked to be in her late 20's with jet black hair, emerald green eyes that seemed to swim with magic, and a firm jaw line that dared anyone to cross her and see what happens next walked out holding a nearly empty whiskey tumbler in her right hand and her cloak draped over her left arm. She downed the last of the glass's contents in one go before placing it on the table to the left of her then quickly striding towards the door while adorning herself with her cloak. Bella noted before she did so that this woman wore a dress colored the darkest shade of green that she'd ever seen that clung to her curves so perfectly that it sent a shiver down Bella's spine and for the moment choosing to ignore her involuntary reaction to this raven-haired beauty.

"Who was that?..." Bella spoke barely above a whisper before the woman said a quick goodbye to the host of the affair and closed the front door behind her.

She turned back to her cousins and wondered if they even heard her. They had though because they had been observing the woman as well, but unlike Bella's awestruck appearance, which neither boy noticed, Regulus had a fearful expression on his face and Sirius just seemed bored with the whole event and was at this moment daydreaming about learning new spells at Hogwarts. "That was Professor Minerva McGonagall," Regulus said with a sigh of relief that the woman was gone.

Bella's eyes shot wide open, "What do you mean _Professor_ Minerva McGonagall?"

"He mean's she's the transfiguration professor and Deputy Headmistress at Hogwarts. And in case you were wondering, little Reggie here is as frightened of her as he is of our parents." This earned him a slap to the back of his head partly as a retaliation for his own earlier offense. It quickly evolved into a scuffle between the brothers that nobody seemed to see or if they did, they didn't care about because they were just some children sitting in the corner.

Bella once again ignored her cousins and let her thoughts go to the woman who she now knew as Minerva McGonagall and wondered why anyone would be scared of such a beautiful woman. She would have to do some research before her first term at Hogwarts started.

**A/N3:** I have most of this story planned out, but anything could change and I always welcome suggestions; please let me know what you think so far.


End file.
